Overview

Print Services Facility (PSF) and Advanced Function Printing
(AFP) have been adopted by S/390® customers worldwide as the
standard for high function, system-managed, production printing. One of
the biggest benefits of AFP has always been its ability to provide rich
formatting capabilities completely external to application programs.
Users could change the appearance of customer statements, invoices, and
other important customer contact documents just by printing them with
different AFP resources.

Today, the documents you send to your customers have become an important
part of your company's customer relationship management strategy. More
than ever, it is important for them to be customized and personalized for
your customer's individual needs. To meet these needs, the AFP
architecture and PSF have been enhanced with new formatting capabilities
that let you:

Design more effective customer documents

Customize the formatting of each customer's document based on its unique
content

Save paper by avoiding unnecessary white space on pages

Use extra space on pages to include marketing messages

PSF and the associated S/390 program, Page Printer Formatting Aid (PPFA)
have been enhanced to support a new kind of page definition. This new
page definition lets you identify print records as being, for example,
header records, subheaders, transaction records, or page footers.
Formatting is then performed uniquely for each record type based on
instructions in the new page definition. You can even paginate multipage
documents in a variety of ways. The result is a customer document that
presents what the customer needs to see in an attractive, effective
format.

Remember, the documents you send your customers may be your most
important contact with them to maintain and promote your relationship.
Now, AFP gives you more power over those documents.

Key Prerequisites

PSF runs on the following S/390 hardware:

All Models of the S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server

All Models of the S/390 Multiprise® 3000

All Models of the S/390 Multiprise 2000

All Models of the IBM ES/9000® Processor Unit 9021, 9121, or 9221

IBM ES/3090-9000T Processors

PC Server S/390

PSF supports printing on IBM and non-IBM AFP/IPDS printers. All
functions of PSF may not be supported by all IPDS printers.

Planned Availability Date

July 28, 2000

Description

What's New in PSF V3 Release 2?

PSF V3.2 for OS/390 delivers exciting new functionality that enables you
to:

Create more effective AFP application output

Perform faster, more accurate problem diagnosis

Improve PSF utilization of system resources

New Application Support

PSF V3.2 offers a powerful new capability for formatting line-data output
using AFP Page Definitions. This new function, called Page Definition
Record Formatting, lets you identify each print record as a unique type
and describe different formatting for each type of record. This gives
you the ability to create a much more flexible, free-flowing electronic
document than was possible with the existing Page Definition
architecture.

A typical customer statement formatted using Record Formatting might have
record types of "Statement Header", "Check Subhead", "Savings Subhead",
"Check Transaction", "Savings Transaction", "Statement Footer", or other
record types. Each record in the print file would be identified by a
record header ID as belonging to one of the defined types. The
associated Page Definition would describe how each record type is to be
formatted, including spacing, font selection, margins for text
formatting, running headers or footers, lines or boxes to surround the
records, graphics, shading, page numbering, or other characteristics in
black and white or in color.

This new Page Definition capability lets you create electronic documents
from OS/390 line-data print output that has the appearance of documents
created using sophisticated third party document formatting programs. It
is supported by new commands in the Page Printer Formatting Aid (PPFA)
(5688-190), via a PTF to APAR PQ37413.

Additional new application support in PSF V3.2 includes:

New mapping-table support in PSF to support Unicode fonts

Unicode
is the information-processing, industry-standard character encoding that
enables multilingual computing using a two-byte character representation.
It is the emerging international standard for new programming languages
such as Java and has been adopted by several major operating systems
including Sun Solaris (UNIX®) and Microsoft Windows NT and 2000.

A new mapping table in PSF is designed to work with the AFP Unicode Fonts
PRPQ (5799-GHJ, RPQ 8A8087), which provides a set of AFP Unicode fonts
that are based on the fonts contained in the AFP Font Collection
(5648-B33). It enables printing of AFP application output in Unicode
data format.

An AFP data-stream reblocking tool, AFRREBLK, in the Sample Library

In today's increasingly complex networked world, AFP data streams are
created and exchanged among S/390 and midrange and PC systems every day.
However, print files and AFP resources from PC and AIX® systems must be
reformatted before they can be used in S/390. The AFRREBLK tool converts
AFP data from PC and AIX systems into the format required on S/390.

A color-mapping utility

Electronic documents are an important part of your Customer Relationship
Management program. Often, they are the only regular contact you have
with your customers. New applications using highlight color and full
color attract the customer's attention and make a more effective
impression in print. The color mapping utility supplied with PSF makes
it easy to map color specifications in an existing application to new
color spaces for more advanced color printers. The color mapping utility
can map named colors for text or graphics into highlight colors for a
"spot-color" printer or into full process CMYK or CIELab color spaces for
a full-color printer.

New Support for Operations and Problem Diagnosis

AFP became a de facto industry standard for production printing because
of its system-managed approach to the print process. In Release 2,
new functions have been added to make your printer operators, system
programmers, and HELP desk personnel more productive than ever.

PSF Installation Exit examples in C

PSF Installation Exits give system programmers the ability to tailor
their AFP printing systems to meet unique application, security, or
operational needs. In previous releases of PSF, user exits and sample
exits provided with PSF were written in Assembler. Today, many more
programmers know how to write C programs than Assembler programs. PSF
exits can now be written in C. Examples of each type of exit, including
specific code for popular functions, are also available in C to help you
get your exits installed and running with a minimum of testing.

Options for handling printer errors

When a printer error such as a paper jam in the printer or postprocessing
equipment occurs, PSF may have to reposition the print data set to resume
printing at the correct location in the print job. How customers want to
handle this situation depends upon the unique requirements of each
operational environment. Some customers want the interrupt message page
printed at the location in the print job where printing is restarted.
Some customers want the printer to stop when an interrupt occurs, and a
message to be sent to a printer operator console. Some customers want to
terminate the job when such an error occurs. In Release 2,
customers can now indicate via the PSF Message Exit exactly how they want
this situation to be handled in their installation.

Printer names and EC levels in error messages

When print output is not generated as expected, determining the cause can
be a complicated and time-consuming process. Which printer the output
was printed on and what is the current EC level of that printer are
important pieces of information needed for problem diagnosis. In
Release 2, PSF and the IPDS architecture have been enhanced to
collect information on the printer type and EC level from printers that
support this new function, and return that information in PSF error
messages. This is especially useful in distributed-print environments
where printing is done on many different types of printers, which may
have different EC levels installed.

Remote JES console support

The System Display and Search Facility (SDSF) in MVS/JES2 systems
provides information to monitor, manage, and control jobs, printers,
queues, and resources from any terminal with an ISPF session. PSF
documentation is enhanced in Release 2 to describe how you can use
SDSF with PSF to provide remote management of your AFP printing system.

System ID on header pages

As OS/390 Server systems grow into multiprocessor complexes it becomes
increasingly important to provide complete information about which
processor in the system has produced a print job. In Release 2,
PSF's header and trailer page exits have been enhanced to allow customers
to choose whether they want the information on separator pages for
printers running in an MAS (Multi-Access Spool) environment to print the
System ID of the system on which the job was submitted, or that of the
system on which it was printed.

Improved support for distributed-print

OS/390 and PSF together provide system and print services that make the
OS/390 Server an ideal enterprise print-server solution. Many customers
are now running thousands of AFP printers in distributed networks. PSF
has been enhanced in Release 2 to increase the number of printers
that can be configured to a single PSF Functional Subsystem (FSS). In
addition, PSF has been changed to allocate storage for a printer only
when that printer is actually started. Previously, PSF allocated some
storage for all printers in an FSS, even if they were not in use. This
change improves the efficiency of PSF in installations with large numbers
of printers.

In addition, if the Infoprint Server for OS/390 optional feature of
OS/390 V2.8 and later releases is installed and active, printers may be
defined, changed, or deleted in the printer inventory dynamically without
the need to stop and restart the FSS. This improves PSF's ability to
meet the needs of rapidly changing distributed-print environments.

Easier migration from channel to distributed-impact printers

New support for IBM 6400 and other impact-distributed printers will be
provided in the near future (APAR OW44363) to facilitate your migration
from channel-attached JES printers to distributed-impact printers using
PSF. Forms Control Buffers (FCBs) will be dynamically converted to
printer commands to set page length, lines per inch, and channel location
information directly from the FCB in existing JCL. No special printer
resources or JCL changes are required. This lets you move your
application output from channel-attached printers to printers on the LAN
without changing existing operational controls.

New channel attachment support

PSF Release 2 includes support for AFP printers that can attach to
an IBM S/390 Fibre Connection channel, FICON. FICON supports a much
larger bandwidth and higher data rate than current parallel and ESCON®
attachments and will allow more applications, including those containing
image and color, to run at or near rated speed.

Year 2000

This product is Year 2000 ready. When used in accordance with its
associated documentation, it is capable of correctly processing,
providing, and/or receiving date data within and between the twentieth
and twenty-first centuries, provided that all products (for example,
hardware, software, and firmware) used with the product properly exchange
accurate date data with it.

Euro Currency

This program is EuroReady.

For more information on the implications of the euro, visit the IBM euro
Web site at:

IBM considers an IBM product to be EuroReady if the product, when used in
accordance with its associated documentation, is capable of correctly
processing monetary data in the euro denomination and of respecting the
euro currency formatting conventions (including the euro sign). This
assumes that all other products (for example, hardware, software,
firmware) that are used with this product are also EuroReady. IBM
hardware products that are EuroReady may or may not have an engraved euro
sign key on their keyboards.

Currently, EuroReady status applies primarily to IBM products specific to
the EMU countries. Products that are not specific to these countries are
deemed to be "not ready" for euro unless otherwise stated in the
product's country-specific specifications.

IBM Hardware Ready

IBM supplies certain IBM products which include third party software
(pre-loaded or not) and third party attached hardware. In these
instances IBM is not in a position to assert that these third party
products are, in themselves, EuroReady.

Therefore, such IBM products will be designated as hardware ready.

EuroReady Solutions

IBM considers a solution to be EuroReady when the solution providers
have:

Analyzed the euro requirements, including the need to comply with
relevant EC rules

Built in appropriate function

and can clearly demonstrate this by:

Detailing euro-related requirements

Describing how these will be implemented in the solution

Declaring when the implementation will be generally available

The euro capabilities of a EuroReady solution will be clearly identified
as features of the solution specification as described in the contracts
document.

Product Positioning

PSF provides IBM's strategic enterprise print support in OS/390. It
supports AFP/IPDS printers ranging from under 10 to over 1,000 pages per
minute, in both impact and non-impact technologies. Printers can be
attached via channel or on TCP/IP or SNA networks.

Hardware and Software Support Services

SmoothStart/Installation Services

IBM Installation Services can be provided for PSF by IBM Printing Systems
Professional Services at an additional cost. For additional information,
contact your IBM representative and ask for Installation Services for
Print Services Facility V3 for OS/390.

Advanced Function Printing, AFP, Print Services Facility, S/390 Parallel
Enterprise Server, ES/3090, IPDS, MVS, FICON, and SmoothStart are
trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United
States or other countries or both.

S/390, Multiprise, ES/9000, System/390, Infoprint, OS/390, AIX, and ESCON
are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation
in the United States or other countries or both.

Microsoft and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries
exclusively through X/Open Company Limited.

Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service
marks of others.

Technical Information

Specified Operating Environment

Hardware Requirements

PSF runs on the following S/390® hardware:

All Models of the S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server

All Models of the S/390 Multiprise® 3000

All Models of the S/390 Multiprise 2000

All Models of the ES/9000® Processor Unit 9021, 9121, or 9221

ES/3090-9000T Processors

PC Server System/390®

PSF supports printing on IBM and non-IBM AFP/IPDS printers. All
functions of PSF may not be supported by all IPDS printers. Refer to
your printer documentation for device capabilities.

The availability of external device names and EC levels in the enhanced
PSF error messages requires an IPDS printer that supports return of that
information to PSF in the applicable IPDS command stream. Your printer
may require an EC to the control unit to perform this function.

Printers will require an EC and hardware upgrade to support FICON
attachment.

Software Requirements

PSF runs in the following S/390 operating system environments:

OS/390® V2 (5647-A01) with supported levels of JES2 or JES3

OS/390 V1 (5645-001) with supported levels of JES2 or JES3

MVS/ESA SP V5.2.2 with JES2 (5655-068) or JES3 (5655-069)

PSF V3 is required when the operating system level is OS/390 V2.7, or
later.

The following system programs are required:

DFSMS/MVS® V1.2.0, or later (5695-DF1) or DFSMS element of OS/390 V1
or V2

Language Environment® V1.5 for MVS/ESA 5.2.2, or the Language
Environment element of OS/390 V.1 or V.2

OS/390 V1.3, or later is required to use the following features:

PSF exits written in C

Multi host feature for printers with an ESCON® or FICON adapter

The following communication programs are required, depending upon printer
attachments:

ACF-VTAM® V4.3, or later supported release

MVS TCP/IP V3.2, or later or OS/390 e-Network Communication Server

If OS/390 V1.1 or 2 is used, TCP/IP must be upgraded by installing the
MVS TCP/IP product at V3.2, or later.

For attachment of Infoprint® 3000 and InfoPrint 4000 printers using
TCP/IP, OS/390 V2.5, or later with e-Network Communication Server is
required.

If TCP/IP V3.2 is used, PTFs associated with the following APARs must be
applied:

PQ07866

PQ13154

PQ17052

If OS/390 V2.5 with e-Network Communication Server is used, PTFs
associated with the following APARs must be applied:

PQ13154

PQ17052

One of the following is required to provide host fonts:

AFP Font Collection V2.1.0 for MVS and OS/390 (recommended). This
version of the AFP Font Collection contains character sets and code pages
to support printing of the new euro currency symbol. Program number is
5648-B33.

To define and manage PSF printers using the Printer Inventory, the
optional Infoprint Server for OS/390 feature of OS/390 V2.8, or later is
required.

New Record Format Page Definitions can be created using Page Printer
Formatting Aid/370 (PPFA), (5688-190), with program maintenance
applicable to APAR PQ37413. If ACIF is used to format line data with
page definitions using the new record formatting, maintenance applicable
to APAR PQ38247 is required.

Use of the AFP Unicode fonts with PSF requires the AFP Unicode Font PRPQ
5799-GHJ.

Compatibility:
PSF V3.2 for OS/390 is upwardly compatible with PSF V3.1 and with
PSF/MVS V2.2 (5695-040) with the following exceptions:

PSF V3 for OS/390 no longer includes the optional feature, Page Printer
Migration Programs (PPMP). Customers currently using those programs
should continue to use the program modules from PSF/MVS V2.2. The
replacement product for PPMP is the XPort Services Offering on AIX®.
For additional information, contact IBM Printing Systems Professional
Services at 303-924-6700, or contact your local IBM Printing Systems
representative.

The API component of PSF/MVS V2.2 is no longer provided with PSF V3. It
is functionally replaced by AFP Toolbox for MVS, (5655-A25). Customers
using the PSF/MVS V2.2 API can continue to use their existing program
modules.

User Group Requirements:
This announcement satisfies or partially satisfies three
requirements from one or more of the worldwide user-group communities.
Groups include Australasian SHARE/GUIDE (ASG), COMMON, COMMON Europe,
GUIDE International, G.U.I.D.E. Europe, Japan GUIDE/SHARE (JGS), Guide
Latin American (LAG), SHARE EUROPE, and SHARE Incorporated, or customer
requirements submitted in the NEWREQ Lotus® application.

Requirement No. Description
REQ00070150 Include SYSID of system on which
job was printed on separator page
REQ00076438 Allow PSF to stop printing when
duplicate pages may have been
printed (Interrupt Message Page
Action)
REQ00076536 Warning message is required before
printing when hardware error occurs

Planning Information

Direct Customer Support:
Direct customer support is provided by S/390 Support Line. This fee
service can enhance your productivity by providing voice and electronic
access into the IBM support organization. S/390 Support Line will help
answer questions pertaining to usage, how-to, and suspected software
defects for eligible products.

Installation and technical support is provided by IBM Printing Systems
Professional Services. For more information on services, call
303-924-6700.

Packaging:
The PSF V3.2 base program and optional features are each shipped on
separate tapes. No fonts are included on the PSF base tape. If the
compatibility fonts are required, please be sure to order the
compatibility font optional, no-charge feature.

Security, Auditability, and Control

PSF uses the security features and programs for OS/390. The customer is
responsible for evaluation, selection, and implementation of security
features, administrative procedures, and appropriate controls in
application systems and communication facilities.

Customer Financing

IBM Global Financing offers attractive financing to credit-qualified
commercial and government customers and Business Partners in more than 40
countries around the world. IBM Global Financing is provided by the IBM
Credit Corporation in the United States. Offerings, rates, terms, and
availability may vary by country. Contact your local IBM Global
Financing organization. Country organizations are listed on the Web at:

Ordering Information

Current Licensees

Current licensees of Print Services Facility V3.1 for OS/390 will be
sent a program reorder form that can be returned directly to IBM Software
Delivery and Fulfillment (SDF).

Reorder forms are scheduled to be mailed by August 11, 2000.
Reorder forms returned to SDF will be processed within 10 workdays of
receipt. When Release 2 is available, Release 1 will no longer
be available.

New Licensees

Orders for new licenses can be placed now.

Shipment will not occur before availability date.

Unless a later date is specified, orders entered before the planned
availability date will be assigned a schedule date of one week following
availability.

Customization Options

Unlicensed Documentation:
A program directory for each PSF feature that is ordered, and one
copy of the licensed publication for PSF and the features ordered is
shipped automatically with the machine-readable material. For a detailed
list of the PSF publications, refer to Software Announcement
298-389
, dated October 13, 1998.

Subsequent updates (technical newsletters or revisions between releases)
to the publications shipped with the product will be distributed to the
user of record for as long as a license for this software remains in
effect. A separate publication order or subscription is not needed.

Support Line:
Yes. Current charges are unaffected by this announcement.

Order Now

You can also contact your local IBM Business Partner or IBM
representative. To identify them, call 800-IBM-4YOU.

Note:
Shipments will begin after the planned availability date.

Trademarks

S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server, ES/3090, AFP, IPDS, FICON, MVS/ESA, SP,
DFSMS, MVS, and Print Services Facility are trademarks of International
Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other countries or
both.

S/390, Multiprise, ES/9000, System/390, OS/390, DFSMS/MVS, Language
Environment, ESCON, VTAM, Infoprint, and AIX are registered trademarks of
International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other
countries or both.

Lotus is a registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation.

Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service
marks of others.